The Wilton Historical Society, working in partnership with the Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps (WVAC), is readying to extract and preserve parts of the historic structure at 232 Danbury Rd. associated with John C. Walley, a formerly enslaved Black man who owned the home in the mid-1800s.

With a plan in place to retrieve the historic elements, WVAC will be able to move forward with its own plans to demolish the existing building and build its new headquarters on the site, with officials hopeful they can be operational there by Fall 2026.

After WVAC officials announced plans in early 2024 to purchase the property and demolish the structure in order to build a new headquarters on the site, several residents appealed to the Historical Society and WVAC to preserve the house or portions of it.

The structure is the last standing home owned by a formerly enslaved person in Wilton. In 1938, after he had secured his freedom, Walley purchased the property and dwelling that had been built in the early 1800s by Daniel Betts IV. Walley lived there until 1848, when he moved to Bridgeport. After Walley, the building was occupied by several different owners who made extensive renovations and additions to the property from the 1860s through to the late 1980s, including modifications to the original one-and-a-half-story structure built by Betts.

Starting in late 2024, the Society began discussing options with several architectural historic building consultants to determine the condition and extent of the historic structure.

Historical Society Executive Director Nick Foster said his team consulted with Dave Gango at Salem Preservation, who opened up the walls to investigate. They learned that, due to the multiple renovations on the structure, only a small portion of the building contains actual remains from the period when Walley owned the home, and these portions do not constitute a full structure.

“We realized that the original structure of the building is pretty limited,” Foster said. “There’s about seven upright posts that would have formed the original load bearing structure to the home — those are no longer load bearing… — those are the obvious things we’re going to try to take out.”

Foster also said the team will try to save some of the floorboards, but they’ve been impacted by other renovations and may not be able to be removed without damage.

“We’re going to do our best to take what we can get, but we’re not sure what condition they’re going to be in. There’s also several horizontal joists and beams that are in various states of dry rot and damage that we are going to try to remove as best we can,” Foster said, noting that retrieval of the seven upright beams and as many floorboards as possible is really the target.

Once removed, the pieces of the original framing will be individually identified, preserved and stored, with the intention of incorporating them as part of an educational public display, although Foster doesn’t yet know what it will look like exactly.

“Primarily it’s going to be some sort of an exhibit focused on African Americans in Wilton, building off a lot of the research that we did about two or three years ago,” Foster said.

Society officials are honored to play a part in preserving the tangible legacy of John C. Walley and his fellow enslaved and free African Americans who lived and worked in 18th- and 19th-century Wilton.

Foster said he takes the responsibility seriously of preserving these artifacts and ensuring they survive long into the future.

“There’s so little left in this community related to the formerly enslaved of Wilton,” he said. “They’re not just stories. There are artifacts people can see and really connect with a person from the past who I think is often overlooked. John C. Walley and all the enslaved people of Wilton don’t always get the top billing as far as history is concerned, but they’re such a vital part of what our history is and what made our community what it is. Making sure these objects aren’t lost and damaged and thrown away is going to be a huge step towards educating everyone for generations to come about John C. Walley and the impact that he and other formerly enslaved people had on this community.”

WVAC Plans to Start Moving Ahead

Removal and retrieval of the historic pieces will take place in coordination with demolition of the building, which begins around May 12, after permits are secured with the town.

Once demolition is complete, WVAC will begin to fundraise and secure the builder. According to WVAC President John Miscioscia, the organization has a hopeful construction start time around September 2025, and he’s hoping the new facility will be up and ready by the end of 2026.

“We want to have it as soon as possible. So, to me, late 2026 is not out of the question, but I can get a better feel for that soon,” Miscioscia said.

He explained that although WVAC is eager to get started on its new headquarters, the organization was happy to abide by the delay to ensure an important part of Wilton’s history will be saved.

“We’re just following the lead of the Historical Society. If the Historical Society wanted to take everything, we would accommodate them” he said.